The lack of security in various Internet of Things devices has been a major concern for the IT industry over the past year – and a new threat targeting vulnerable IoT devices is accelerating those fears.

IT security firm Radware recently revealed a new Internet of Things malware, called Brickerbot, which disables vulnerable IoT devices so they are left completely inoperable. This type of attack, which Radware described as a "permanent distributed denial of service," can destroy the firmware or basic functions of IoT device systems.